Long-Lost Snake Species Found

The northern
Mexican garter snake was once thought to be extinct in New Mexico, but all that
changed last month when six were found in the state. Matt Eschenbrenner
sounded optimistic about the possible numbers of northern Mexican garter snakes
in Arizona and New Mexico, and that is his job.

Turns out Mexican garter snakes aren't extinct. They just hadn't been seen in about two decades. Several were recently found in New Mexico, raising hopes that populations might exist in Arizona, too. (Photo courtesy of Albuquerque BioPark)

Before June, the snakes had not
been seen in close to 20 years. So, the senior zookeeper at the Albuquerque BioPark
has been part of a team searching for the snakes in southwestern New Mexico. Ecshenbrenner
said he and his coworkers talked about the snakes constantly for more than
three years.

“We
thought we would end up finding them. Now, you know, two years go by and you’re
not as confident as you were at the very start,” Ecshenbrenner said, laughing, “but it
turned out that was the case. So, hadn’t been seen in a long time, but, yeah,
we always had a feeling that we would run into them.”

Eschenbrenner
said a few of the northern Mexican garter snakes will be bred in captivity at
the Albuquerque Zoo. They will also be in display at the zoo, in a special
area for threatened species.

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